WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/L/842 
20 November 2007 
 (07-5045) 
  
  
 
REPORT (2007) ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE  
COMMITTEE ON SANITARY AND PHYTOSANITARY MEASURES 
   
1. The present report is being circulated by the Chairperson of the Committee on Sanitary and 
Phytosanitary Measures on his own responsibility.  This report provides a summary of the activities 
and decisions of the Committee as of 1 November 2007. 
2. The Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary  Measures (the "SPS Committee") has held 
three regular meetings in 2007:  28 February-1  March;  27-28 June;  and 18-19 October.
1  At the June 
meeting, Mr. Marinus Huige of the Netherlands w as appointed Chairperson for the 2007-2008 period. 
3. The Second Review of the Operation and Im plementation of the SPS Agreement (G/SPS/36) 
identified the following issues wher e the Committee might consider further actions:  practical 
implementation of consistency;  equivalence;  implementation of the transparency provisions;  
monitoring the use of international standards;  tec hnical assistance;  special and differential treatment; 
regionalization;  specific trade concerns;  use of ad hoc consultations; coope ration with the Codex, 
OIE and IPPC;  clarification of definition of terms;   examination  of the relationship between certain 
articles;  undue delays;  good regulatory practices;  and facilitation of the implementation of Article 8 
and Annex C of the SPS Agreement.  The Committee r ecognized that it is already addressing many of 
these issues as part of its regular agenda, includi ng transparency, special and differential treatment, 
technical assistance and regionalization.  Of the re maining issues, the Comm ittee decided to initially 
focus on the use of ad hoc consultations and ne gotiations to resolve trade problems and on the 
relationship between the SPS Committee and the Codex, OIE and IPPC. 
4. The SPS Committee held a third special workshop on the implementation of the transparency 
provisions of the SPS Agreement on 15-16 October 2007.  The first two special meetings were held in 
November 1999 and October 2003.2  In preparation for the works hop, Members were encouraged to 
respond to a questionnaire on the operation of Enqu iry Points and National Notification Authorities.3 
An analysis of the replies received provided backgr ound information for the workshop, along with an 
analysis of SPS notifications.4  
5. At the workshop, a number of institutional and national challenges were identified, including:  
awareness at the political level and among the pub lic at large;  coordination among different 
Ministries;  mobilizing the relevant private sect or representatives;  difficulties in regional/inter-
governmental cooperation;  managing the inflow of no tifications;  and the sustainability of efforts.  
The Committee agreed to revise its  recommended procedures for transparency (G/SPS/7/Rev.2) to 
address some of these concerns, and in particular with  respect to the definition of the comment period, 
                                                      
1 The report of the February-March meeting is cont ained in G/SPS/R/44, that of the June meeting in 
G/SPS/R/45, and the report of the October meeting will be circulated as G/SPS/R/46 . 
2 The reports of these meetings can be found  in G/SPS/R/16 and G/SPS/R/32, respectively. 
3 G/SPS/W/103/Rev 2. 
4 G/SPS/GEN/751/Rev.1 and G/SPS/GEN/804, respectively. G/L/842 
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  the notification of measures conforming to internati onal standards, the identification of HS codes in 
notifications, and access to full texts of regulations an d their translations.  Furthermore, the Secretariat 
was requested to prepare a document explaining th e importance of the transparency obligations and 
the benefits of transparency, as well as to undert ake further training and dissemination on the SPS 
Information Management System.  The Secretariat was also requested to develop a mechanism for 
"mentoring" to assist officials responsible for transp arency in developing countries;  and Australia and 
New Zealand proposed to develop a step-by-step manual on the implementation of the transparency 
provisions for consultation by Members.  
6. In accordance with the transp arency provisions of the SPS Agreement, 947 notifications 
(including addenda, corrigenda, re visions, supplements and agreem ents on equivalence) were 
submitted in the period 1 January to 28 Sept ember 2007, bringing the total number of SPS 
notifications submitted since the entry into fo rce of the Agreement to 8,313 by October 2007. 
7. During 2007, the Committee continued discussions on ways to provide targeted technical 
assistance to those developing country Members still failing to meet the transparency provisions of the Agreement.  In addition, Members, Obser ver Organizations and th e Secretariat provided 
information on their respective SPS-related technical a ssistance activities, and the Secretariat kept the 
Committee informed of the work of the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF).  Several 
Members provided responses to the questionnaire on their SPS-related technical assistance needs.
5  
The Committee requested the Secretariat to organize a special meeting to consider "best practice" in 
the provision of SPS-related technical assistance during 2008. 
8. The issue of special and differential treatme nt was considered at each meeting of the 
Committee.  A revised proposal regarding Article 10.1 was presented to the Committee in June and 
discussed at its October meeting.6  Also considered was a proposal fo r the revision of the procedure to 
enhance the transparency of special and differential treatment.7  A report of the Committee's 
deliberations on special and differential treatment is contained in G/SPS/46.   
9. The SPS Committee considered a wide range of  specific trade concerns, including many 
related to individual notifications.  The issues discussed included, inter alia , concerns with the use of 
anti-microbial treatments (AMTs);  tolerance leve l for pathogens in raw meat and poultry products; 
maximum levels of pesticide residues in several  products;  measures taken in response to avian 
influenza, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) a nd foot-and-mouth disease (FMD);  fire blight 
in apples; and measures on prawns and prawn produc ts.  In total, during 2007, 19 new specific trade 
concerns were raised, 21 previously raised concerns  were again discussed, and five were reported to 
have been resolved. 
10. The Committee also discussed concerns relating to the effects of commercial and private SPS 
standards on trade.  The discussions considered the  impact of private standards on market access,  the 
effect of private standards on development;  and th e legal aspects in terms of the relationship of 
private standards with the SPS Agreement.  At its June meeting, an informal information session was 
held with representatives of entities involved in the development of private standards, as well with 
organizations who have undertaken studies of these.  The Committee decided to maintain this issue on 
its agenda, with the aim, inter alia , of identifying (1) whether there was a more appropriate forum for 
addressing these concerns;  and (2) difficulties arisin g from specific private standard requirements on 
specific products in specific markets. 
                                                      
5 The Questionnaire is contained in G/SPS/W/101 and the replies are circulated as addenda to 
G/SPS/GEN/295. 
6 JOB(07)/99. 
7 The procedure is contained in G/SPS/33, and the proposed revision in JOB(07)/104.  G/L/842 
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  11. The Committee continued to consider proposals regarding the implementation of Article 6 on 
regionalization (the recognition of pest- or disease-free  areas).  An ad hoc group of Members has been 
working to jointly prepare a draft of guidelines for consideration by the Committee with  the objective 
of improving predictability in the recognition of regionalization.  The IPPC informed the Committee 
of the adoption of the International Standard fo r Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) 29:  "Recognition of 
Pest-Free Areas and Areas of Low Pest Prevalen ce", in March 2007.  The OIE also kept the 
Committee informed of relevant work on the recognition of disease-free zones and compartments. 
12. The Ninth Annual Report on the Procedure to Monitor the Process of International 
Harmonization was adopted by the Committee at its June meeting.8  
13. At the October 2007 meeting, the Comm ittee conducted a transitional review under 
Paragraph 18 of the Protocol of Accession of th e People's Republic of China.  Questions were 
submitted in advance of the meeting by the United States and by the European Communities.9  The 
report of the review is contained in the document G/SPS/47. 
14. The Committee agreed to invite those organiza tions which had been granted observer status 
on an ad hoc, meeting-by-meeting basis to particip ate in each of its meetings during 2007.  A new 
request for observer status was received from the Gulf Cooperation Council Standardisation 
Organization (GSO).  The Committee was unable to reach  any decision with regard to this request or 
on pending requests from the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV), from the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC), and fro m the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). 
15. The SPS Committee maintained its  close working relationship with the IPPC, the OIE and 
Codex and received regular updates on their activities.   Other observer organizations also provided 
information on their activities, including technical assistance activities. 
16. The Committee agreed to the following tentative calendar for its regular meetings in 2008:  2-
3 April, 25-26 June and 15-16 October. 
 
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8 G/SPS/45. 
9 G/SPS/W/213 and G/SPS/W/216, respectively.